Why Nancy Pelosi stayed

The first female House speaker, Nancy Pelosi came to power just two years before the nation elected its first black president. Together, they next reshaped the American health care system — a landmark law that has since driven two national elections, cost her dearly, but still stands. And now, with President Barack Obama firmly ensconced for another four years, you thought this mayor’s daughter from Baltimore would just walk away?

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Pelosi to remain as leader

Pelosi laughs off 'offensive' question about older leadership

Not likely.

Salmon swim upstream to spawn and die. Nancy Pelosi sticks around to see what comes of the eggs. And Wednesday’s announcement that she will stay on as House Democratic leader in the new Congress came as no great surprise, despite her milking “D-Day” for all it was worth.

That said, Pelosi’s decision is not without worries for her party, freezing in place a top hierarchy of Democratic leaders — all in their 70s — and lacking a strong, natural communicator among the lot.

With Obama in the White House, perhaps none is needed. But Pelosi is foremost a party builder, and by staying, does she risk smothering the very initiative she wants to foster in her brood?

She joked Wednesday that if she were to walk away, she would leave only men at the table meeting with Obama. True enough, but her own rise began when men, younger than her 72 years today, left the leadership, thereby creating an opening.

“Oh, you’ve always asked that question? Except to Mitch McConnell,” she snapped in response to a reporter’s question about her age. “You have to take off about 14 years from me because I was home raising a family, getting the best experience of all in diplomacy, interpersonal skills.”

Indeed, out of power and less visible for the past two years, Pelosi battles a certain fatigue in the press. But her legacy already is huge, not just as the first female speaker but also, in many respects, the most modern of the past half-century.

Tip O’Neill was an old-school Massachusetts politician whose sails caught the wind of a new generation of Democrats elected in the 1970s amid the turmoil of Watergate and Vietnam. Texas’s Jim Wright fell quickly — in part because he failed to do the same. Tom Foley of Washington was content next to “manage” the House, much as Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Ohio’s John Boehner — on a good day — would try for Republicans.

In the midst of this, Georgia’s Newt Gingrich stood out as a genuine force who built a movement that wrested power from the Democrats in 1994. But too often, Gingrich saw that movement as himself: He was the party in his eyes. Whereas Pelosi’s enduring strength has been that she is “of the party” — she wants to build and empower.

Excellent. There is no greater tool at the disposal of the Republican party to keeping their majority than the spectre of a Speaker Pelosi. That witch is the only reason that the House stayed in Republican hands, while the Party of Free Sh!t held the White House and even clawed away a seat from the Republicans in the Senate. Yet miraculously, telling voters that a vote for the democrat House candidate is a vote for Nancy Pelosi means 235 Republican House seats. Imagine that!

Thank you for staying on Mrs. Pelosi ... you are a hero to me and many women of my generation. You have been the most consequential Speaker in decades and your dedication to women and children is so needed ... and appreciated.

There are so many things about you that I admire. You could have stepped down and had less pressure ... or even retired to spend time with your family. But your dedication to public service is a fine example for so many women and so unlike some of the juvenile and sophomoric comments that we see here, we say "thank you for your service and example".

While Pelosi will go down in history as the first female Speaker and a consequential one at that, you've got nothing other than pathetic misogyny. What do you look like fella? Yah, roaming the web insulting women ... I can just imagine your a real "prize" ... : )

Excellent. There is no greater tool at the disposal of the Republican party to keeping their majority than the spectre of a Speaker Pelosi. That witch is the only reason that the House stayed in Republican hands, while the Party of Free Sh!t held the White House and even clawed away a seat from the Republicans in the Senate. Yet miraculously, telling voters that a vote for the democrat House candidate is a vote for Nancy Pelosi means 235 Republican House seats. Imagine that!

Yeah...........you run with that Sparky

Actually, the only reason the House is till in GOP hands is because of gerrymandering.

But hey............. you Tea Baggers live in your own secret sauce bubble world anyway sooooooooooo.

Besides........Boehner and Cantor TOGETHER don't have Nanacy's cojones.

JMichails1971, WOW! the woman is not some God and worshipping a politician is not healthy. The woman is a mean person and she has worked hard to enrich herself and family. She says she wanted to stay home with her kids, the only selfless thing she has ever done. She has worked hard to make up for the time.

Did you know that before taxes have been raised so high, more women could stay home. As taxes are raised fewer can stay home to take care of the kids they have given birth to. Funny how some women think it is great to have a child but would not consider staying home to raise it.It would be beneath them, they hire an illegal to take of their kid(s). That is why the dems want illegals, they need cheap child care.